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Honestly the fact that Ayn Rand is so high makes me question HN entirely.

__rito__ 3y ago
I think this [0] is a better, and more (statistically) representative list. [0]: https://hackernewsbooks.com/top-books-on-hacker-news https://hackernewsbooks.com/top-books-on-hacker-news
- reducesuffering 3y ago
  This list can't be more accurate with "Three Felonies A day" at #4, "Elements of Computing Systems" at #6, and "Working Effectively with Legacy Code" at #8. TFA list seems way more representative.
  - __rito__ 3y ago
    I didn't say perfect or accurate. I said "more statistically representative". As compared to the OP. And I stand by that.
yawpitch 3y ago
If a list includes Ayn Rand and the title for the list doesn’t start with “[N] Worst [Writers|Artists|Philsophers|Thinkers|Economists|Women] of” then it’s a bad list.
- spicymapotofu 3y ago
  This narrow perspective doesn't sit well with me. I read Shrugged while growing up poor, and I think a thoughtful take would be that she wrote, in her own way, something which could be in the running as the "Great American Novel" alongside Gatsby or Huckleberry Finn. It captures a zeitgeist, even if I don't personally want this world at large, and I think we lose an important part of literature discussions to allow a discourse as simple as "Rand bad".
  - zvmaz 3y ago
    > I think we lose an important part of literature discussions to allow a discourse as simple as "Rand bad". Sometimes, it is that simple: "Rand bad".
    - yawpitch 3y ago
      So, so bad.
  - lizardking 3y ago
    At some point a chunk of the Reddit hive mind detached and affixed itself to HN.
  - yawpitch 3y ago
    If one’s view is that Atlas Shrugged constitutes a novel at all — rather than an objectivist manifesto rattled off by “characters” with all the inherent humanity of damp toilet tissue — one’s perspective is so ludicrously narrow that all I can prescribe is anything whatsoever by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and call me once the fever breaks. But, yes, Rand’s turds do appeal to those poor enough financially that they didn’t receive a rich and broad education and poor enough intellectually that they couldn’t give themselves one.
bwb 3y ago
I love Ayn Rand, but not for the weird cult thing it grew into. To me, it is the story of someone trying to create cool stuff and the world making that hard (felt like a celebration of human creativity). She is brutalistic in her messaging but it is an interesting story. I weirdly like her writing style, its like someone pounding a hammer against my skull. Haven't read her books in 10+ years but in my teens and twenties, I found them thought provoking and inspiring.
- thiago_fm 3y ago
  Same, and I'm very progressive and completely disagree with her Objectivist philosophy, because she's obviously not a philosopher. She's a great writer though, her work can motivate people, and has for sometime made me reflect and move forward with my life. But I believe it might be toxic for the HN crew. Let's be frank, people don't read much on average, so they take whatever book or author you read as your own personality, when in reality people should read many books with different ideas, so you can form your own. One can learn a lot from reading from Friedman to Marx. This is why I also think that one should read all the classics instead of chasing book recommendations, any community you ask will give them recommendation for non-technical subjects that are from their own worldview, which in turn, will make you not smarter, but likely more stupid than you initially started before you've read those books.
  - bwb 3y ago
    Well said. She had a really unique view of the world, I appreciated it, and it definitely helped me develop my own view of the world. I am about to read the Upanishads along a similar line of thought.
    - Spivak 3y ago
      I think this is the first time I've heard anyone talk about Rand in a way that matches my own experience. Her writing definitely affected how I saw the world and I think that makes it good. But at the same time it's like nerd sniping for philosophy, I had such a visceral reaction to how well she presents an absolutely insane way of thinking that you can't just dismiss her out of hand. It forces you to genuinely learn to be able to command the vocabulary and ideas to really explain where the cracks are.

I think this [0] is a better, and more (statistically) representative list. [0]: https://hackernewsbooks.com/top-books-on-hacker-news https://hackernewsbooks.com/top-books-on-hacker-news

reducesuffering 3y ago
This list can't be more accurate with "Three Felonies A day" at #4, "Elements of Computing Systems" at #6, and "Working Effectively with Legacy Code" at #8. TFA list seems way more representative.
- __rito__ 3y ago
  I didn't say perfect or accurate. I said "more statistically representative". As compared to the OP. And I stand by that.

yawpitch 3y ago

spicymapotofu 3y ago
This narrow perspective doesn't sit well with me. I read Shrugged while growing up poor, and I think a thoughtful take would be that she wrote, in her own way, something which could be in the running as the "Great American Novel" alongside Gatsby or Huckleberry Finn. It captures a zeitgeist, even if I don't personally want this world at large, and I think we lose an important part of literature discussions to allow a discourse as simple as "Rand bad".
- zvmaz 3y ago
  > I think we lose an important part of literature discussions to allow a discourse as simple as "Rand bad". Sometimes, it is that simple: "Rand bad".
  - yawpitch 3y ago
    So, so bad.
- lizardking 3y ago
  At some point a chunk of the Reddit hive mind detached and affixed itself to HN.
- yawpitch 3y ago
  If one’s view is that Atlas Shrugged constitutes a novel at all — rather than an objectivist manifesto rattled off by “characters” with all the inherent humanity of damp toilet tissue — one’s perspective is so ludicrously narrow that all I can prescribe is anything whatsoever by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and call me once the fever breaks. But, yes, Rand’s turds do appeal to those poor enough financially that they didn’t receive a rich and broad education and poor enough intellectually that they couldn’t give themselves one.

bwb 3y ago

I love Ayn Rand, but not for the weird cult thing it grew into. To me, it is the story of someone trying to create cool stuff and the world making that hard (felt like a celebration of human creativity). She is brutalistic in her messaging but it is an interesting story. I weirdly like her writing style, its like someone pounding a hammer against my skull. Haven't read her books in 10+ years but in my teens and twenties, I found them thought provoking and inspiring.

thiago_fm 3y ago
Same, and I'm very progressive and completely disagree with her Objectivist philosophy, because she's obviously not a philosopher. She's a great writer though, her work can motivate people, and has for sometime made me reflect and move forward with my life. But I believe it might be toxic for the HN crew. Let's be frank, people don't read much on average, so they take whatever book or author you read as your own personality, when in reality people should read many books with different ideas, so you can form your own. One can learn a lot from reading from Friedman to Marx. This is why I also think that one should read all the classics instead of chasing book recommendations, any community you ask will give them recommendation for non-technical subjects that are from their own worldview, which in turn, will make you not smarter, but likely more stupid than you initially started before you've read those books.
- bwb 3y ago
  Well said. She had a really unique view of the world, I appreciated it, and it definitely helped me develop my own view of the world. I am about to read the Upanishads along a similar line of thought.
  - Spivak 3y ago
    I think this is the first time I've heard anyone talk about Rand in a way that matches my own experience. Her writing definitely affected how I saw the world and I think that makes it good. But at the same time it's like nerd sniping for philosophy, I had such a visceral reaction to how well she presents an absolutely insane way of thinking that you can't just dismiss her out of hand. It forces you to genuinely learn to be able to command the vocabulary and ideas to really explain where the cracks are.